Domestic Violence Crisis Center

DVCC seeks to provide comprehensive services to individuals and their children who have been impacted by domestic violence. Our overall goal is to enable them to better understand the nature of abusive relationships and to utilize the tools and services that will allow them to safely exit or, in some cases, safely remain in those relationships.

It is also our goal to raise awareness within the communities we serve and to prevent domestic violence by providing young people with information and tools that help them recognize the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships and behaviors.

Lastly, we aim to influence systemic and policy changes that benefit victims of domestic violence.

DVCC directs its resources and expertise toward providing comprehensive services, community education, and advocacy at both the individual and systems level.

Our Court and Legal Project advocates for clients in court, and has also influenced significant changes to domestic violence laws in CT as they relate to criminal procedure and to housing and economic policies. Our Civil Legal Clinic helps DVCC clients receive assistance on civil matters from volunteer attorneys, and we helped to implement the Lethality Assessment Program (LAP) in CT, which provides safety planning and services for victims who are screened as being at high risk for lethal violence.

DVCC's Medical Advocacy Project (MAP), the first of its kind in CT, not only responds to domestic violence victims in area hospitals, but also has developed comprehensive training programs for health care professionals in order to promote earlier identification of IPV victims through improved screening and to encourage referral of victims to appropriate sources.

DVCC's two SafeHouses are staffed 24/7, resulting in wrap-around services and support for residents. Our Counseling Advocates see up to 70 clients a week, as well as provide multiple support groups and workshops in English and Spanish.

Responding to the need for broader and more culturally-appropriate outreach within Fairfield County's Spanish-speaking communities, in 2011 DVCC launched EsperanzaCT, CT's first Spanish language website and 24-hour phone and online service center for Spanish-speaking victims of DV, providing them with immediate access to information and assistance in their native language.

SustainAbilityCT (iACT) focuses on economic solutions that drive employment, education and housing. Recognizing that economic stability is the most important predictor of an individual's ability to permanently exit an abusive relationship, DVCC created iACT to help victims achieve financial security through numerous resources, including financial education workshops, resume preparation, job search strategies, and connection to job training programs and affordable housing resources.

PeaceWorks, DVCC's education platform, provides tools to help young people learn ways to solve conflicts peacefully and to recognize and maintain healthy relationships. The interactive and age-appropriate programs for Pre-K to 12th grades also promote empathy, tolerance, self-awareness and respect towards all. Teen PeaceWorks recognizes the importance of teen leadership and advocacy. Teens in area high schools raise awareness about bullying, teen dating violence and the importance of healthy interpersonal relationships.

Through DVCC360, our commitment to research, advocacy, policy and partnerships, we keep current with best practices and up-to-date research in the areas that affect individuals impacted by DV. DVCC works to influence policy by advocating for laws that will benefit victims across the state and create permanent social change.

DVCC has recruited a highly professional staff with backgrounds in counseling, education, law, social work, public policy and communication. Over the past eight years, the agency has expanded staffing levels from 21 to 55 employees. Simultaneously, we have cultivated more than 30 new funding sources for DVCC, grown our cash assets by 120% and developed better investment strategies.

Since 2008, DVCC has not only significantly enhanced services that existed prior to that time, but has also created four brand new initiatives – the Medical Advocacy Project, EsperanzaCT, DVCC360 and SustainAbilityCT – as well as revamped the violence-prevention education program into the current PeaceWorks project.

Moreover, DVCC works in tandem with the police departments in the seven cities and towns we serve and has developed in excess of 200 professional collaborations and partnerships across government, legal, health, education, business and social service communities, thus improving and enhancing services and safety nets for our clients.

DVCC has made significant strides in multiple directions: establishing policies and programs that ensure we meet and assist victims where they are most likely to be found, such as courtrooms and hospitals; creating innovative programs such as EsperanzaCT, which provides specialized outreach to the Hispanic population, and SustainAbilityCT, which goes to the heart of why many victims can't leave abusive relationships and offers very specific and practical solutions; providing a Civil Legal Clinic to address the questions and concerns of our numerous clients who cannot afford private legal assistance; helping to implement the Lethality Assessment Program, which greatly enhances the safety of victims; influencing systemic changes in Connecticut to benefit victims of domestic violence; revamping our PeaceWorks project to reflect best practices and innovative programming.

However, we are very aware that we cannot “rest on our laurels", so to speak, for the simple fact that every year we continue to serve more than 3,000 individuals impacted by domestic violence. We believe that there is always some way to improve on our response to victims, some way to better ensure the accountability of abusers, and some way to better communicate the message that intimate partner violence amongst the most harmful and deadliest of crimes.